There are so many
Web hosting companies to choose from, how do you find the right one for
you? If you're not satisfied with your current host, should you switch
to a new one?

Below
are Web hosting companies that offer special packages to GNWDAmembers.

I cannot guarantee
your satisfaction with any of them, because your needs are different
than mine, and I cannot predict the future. Life on the Internet
is always changing. Services improve and sometimes deteriorate over
time. But where they are members of the Good News Web Designers
Association, I can vouch for their faith-based attitudes and their
ecumenical spirit and their love for the Lord, since this is integral
to their membership in the GNWDA.

Here are a few things
to consider when choosing a host; if you don't see the information you
need in the company's list of services, email them about it:

Fast connectivity:
Are the company's servers riding on the backbone of the Internet or
does it have an extra layer or two?

POP email accounts:
Will you and your staff/clients need separate email addresses? How many?
Using aliases, you can usually set up lots of addresses that forward
mail to people's regular ISP address (e.g., you@aol.com) and to a single
POP account on your domain (e.g., you@yourchurch.org), but if you have
only one POP account, only you can download the mail directly from the
domain address into your email software.

Web-based email:
Will anyone using domain addresses need to read their mail while traveling
or from home instead of the office? How many features does the company
offer in their web-based mail program? Compare it to something like
hotmail.

Mailing lists:
Will you use your website as a means of communication to get information
out to church members or other subscribers? If so, choose a host that
is not giving you shared server space but instead will give you your
domain its own IP address. If your mailing list is run off a shared
server (such as in the case of cPanel), when a spammer uses this server
and gets blacklisted, you will be blacklisted, too.

Tech support:
Can you get help by phone? Is it a toll free number? Most companies
provide support tickets through their websites, but what if their
site goes down? (It happens!) And is tech support available 24/7?

What's tech
support good for? Do they only fix problems caused by their servers?
Or are they willing to help you when you've made a mistake and you don't
know why your script isn't working? It's not fair to ask them for a
lot of such help, but do they have an attitude of service or do they
prefer to charge extra?

Disaster recovery:
How often does the company backup everything on its servers? Do they
keep these backups on the same server? How often do they siphon them
off for safe storage elsewhere? Do they provide you with an easy way
to backup everything on your site as an extra precaution?

Up-time:
How often do the sites go down? What measures does the company have
in place to prevent down-time? Do they have mirrored servers so that
when one needs repairs, the other keeps your site up?

Resellers or
developers: Is the company a reseller of someone else's hosting
services? Or do they develop their own packages and special features?
Sometimes resellers have more to offer than developers, and sometimes
developers offer more flexibility in working with your needs.

Control panel:
Does the company have a demo you can see before you sign up? I'll never
sign up blindly again; if there is no demo, it could mean the control
panel is crummy. How many features does the control panel put at your
fingertips? How easy is it to figure out?

Knowledge base:
Does the company site include a how-to manual to help you use the features
it provides? How easy is it to use? Is it searchable?

Web
hosting companies
offering special hosting packages to members of the GNWDA

Owned
by GNWDA member Dan Frydman."We're a Christian run company and want to
help serve the GNWDA group as best we can."